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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Boosting your energy with alkaline foods

As a follow-up to my post about balancing the skin, here goes a couple of words about balancing your diet; can you tell I'm all 'bout pH levels recently ;)?

The topic of alkaline foods and cleansing/detoxing diet came to my attention some 2 weeks ago when reading an article devoted to it in the Polish edition of Shape magazine. Basically (and I'm not a specialist by any means, I'm just reporting what I read), the reasoning behind it is that unlike your skin, which is supposed to be acidic and is often made more alkaline through wrong skincare, the rest of your body needs more alkaline environment but is often acidic because of the products we eat every day. The more acidic your organism gets, the lower your energy levels and higher the probability of migraines, inflammation and getting overweight.

While weight is not something I'm terribly worried about, the lack of energy and headaches definitely struck a chord. However, I didn't think much of the theory (seemed a little bit 'gimmicky' to me) until I found many other dieticians and nutrionists also support it, and I decided to give it a try, as some of the tips are super easy to incorporate into your daily routine. It couldn't hurt, right?

So the most acidic foods in the diet include, not surprisingly, red meat, fatty cheese, alcohol, coffee (nooo!) and tea, chocolate (double nooo!) and candy, as well as some seasonings such as vinaigret, soy sauce or mustard.

As for the healthy alkaline foods we should eat more of, the list includes wholegrain products, green veg such as leafy greens, asparagus or broccoli (yum!), herbs, sour fruit such as cherries, limes or lemons, avocado, and spices such as cayenne pepper or chilli powder.

What I've been doing recently is: I've been trying to limit the amount of coffee I drink to 1 per week (I reserve it only for special occasions), cut down black tea (to 1 per day max) and sweet treats, and eat more veggies altogether. While these steps might sound quite difficult to you, there's one amazingly simple thing you can do: add lemon to your drinks and food. I know lemon sounds counterintuitive for alkaline food, but while has a very acidic pH of about 2, it has an alkaline effect once in your body. Right now, I'm always trying to start my day with a glass of water with a good squezze of lemon juice.

And you know what? I really do feel it has made a difference. I'm not 100% sure it's just alkaline diet or maybe also some other factors such as the beginning of Spring weather, but I've noticed I have more energy, don't get irritated that easily, and my skin is looking more radiant. I'd say give it a try if you feel like you could use some extra verve.

I'd also like to give a shout out to my beautiful friend Marina, a blogger behind the fabulous website Makeup4All. She's been a very busy lady lately working on a new magazine, which is a guidebook on S/S 2010 make-up trends and must-have beauty products. Definitely check it out, it's amazing! I'm very proud to say that I also had a tiny part in the project by giving Marina some thoughts on my favorites for the season. Congrats on your work, hun!

I have to say this one was also inspired by your recent post about Kimberley Snyder! I love citrus fruit, and lemon tastes great in dressings for green salads, which is probably the most alkaline combo ever :) xxx